By Alan Rudnick As the world reacts to the death of Nelson Mandela, we cannot help but read and understand his amazing history of peace. Fighting against injustice and apartheid in South Africa were his notable achievements, but Mandela did…
Advent as parenthesis
A parenthesis is a break in the flow of a thought, an interval, or a time between two events. We experience many events in life that embody this idea of waiting either in anticipation or in dread. Life transitions are…
Longtime pastor to Jimmy Carter dies
By John Pierce Dan Ariail, pastor emeritus of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., where thousands of visitors attend Sunday worship and Bible studies by President Jimmy Carter each year, died Nov. 25 in hospice care in Albany. He was…
Longtime pastor to Jimmy Carter dies
By John Pierce Dan Ariail, pastor emeritus of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where thousands of visitors attend Sunday worship and Bible studies by President Jimmy Carter each year, died Nov. 25 in hospice care in Albany, Ga. He was…
Forever Changed #11: How do you comfort the wounded?
This week I really do not have a message to send home to you. Instead, I just need to grieve a little bit. This column is so healing for me because I get to share with you information that 1….
Where is God when bad stuff happens?
Where is God when bad things happen? Across the ages, this question has perplexed and frustrated those afflicted with suffering, grief, and pain. Theologians and philosophers have wrestled with scriptural texts and rational thought striving to make sense of the…
Longtime CBF worker Latha Bandela dies
By Jeff Huett Latha Bandela, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field worker for more than 17 years until 2011, has died at the age of 66. She suffered a brain aneurysm and passed away Friday at an Atlanta-area hospital. In 1994,…
Between the lullaby and the requiem
The hospital waiting room on the fourth floor at Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center in Anniston was empty and quiet. The only sounds were the dinging of the elevator in the distance and the clanging of the food cart as…
CBF church planter dies
By Bob Allen A Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church planter and adjunct professor at McAfee School of Theology died Aug. 27. Gwen Brown, 59, was founding pastor of Cornerstone Church in Snellville, Ga., which began as a Bible study in her…
Graces I have experienced when grieving
This list began after my Dad died in 1991. I chose not to preach at his funeral, but several weeks later, in a sermon, I listed some of the graces I had experienced since his death. They are included in…
Angle of repose
Death is bigger than us. All of us. And when we brush up against it, we leave wounded—especially when we lose the ones we love (i.e. friends, family, etc). We leave hurt. Over two years ago my wife’s uncle died…
Church loses new pastor to drowning
By Bob Allen A Baptist church in Connecticut is mourning the death of a recently called pastor who died July 29 during a family vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Greg Hamby, 52, pastor of First Baptist Church in Essex, Conn.,…